2010 June Journal

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Summary of the articles and information in the Journal.

Summary - Salt Shakers Journal June 2010 

Editorial (full version below)
Martin Lloyd Jones stated in The Gospel of Genesis, "The Bible presents us with a definitive, concrete, comprehensive worldview that is absolutely different from anything you can find anywhere else".

God - or god?: The attack on the nature and power of the God of the Bible
Roger Birch further develops his article on 'realities' and the attributes of God.

News and Action
Tasmania - election; A monument for homosexuals?; Federal Charter of Rights - NO!; R18+ video games

Religious groups & charities:' Public Benefit Test'
Jenny Stokes calls attention to the Tax Laws Amendment (Public Benefit Test) Bill 2010 and the implications for religious groups who receive income tax exemptions to prove that the provide a 'public benefit.

STDs on the increase
Jenny Stokes alerts us to the increase in sexual disease including HIV, Chlamydia and gonorrhoea.

Issues Update
NSW: Relationships Register; Victoria - Abortions

WA: Euthanasia Bill
Jenny Stokes informs us of the possibility that the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill (2009) will be debated in Parliament on July 1.

Same-sex 'marriage' debate
Jenny Stokes presents the book Why Vs.Why: Gay Marriage which sets out the cases for and against marriage for homosexuals.

Hitler and Today's Left
Murray Adamthwaite informs us about the real implications of Leftist politics and their relationship with Fascism and Communism.

Freedom of Conscience
Amanda Fairweather writes about her experiences addressing the issue of freedom of conscience for doctors.

Political Parties - What do they stand for? Part Six: the Liberal Party of Australia
Peter Stokes writes on the history, ideology and current practices of the Liberal Party.

Series wrap-up
Peter Stokes summarises the importance for Christians to be informed about politics so that we can vote with understanding and stand for our Christian heritage.

USA: Discrimination law gone mad
Jenny Stokes writes about the discrimination against the Christian Legal Society at the Hastings College of Law in California.

World News
UK: Lesbian parents; UK: Antony Flew dies; Fifty years of the Pill; Canada: Funding denied; UK: Election result; Violence and video games

Full Editorial

Martin Lloyd Jones stated in The Gospel of Genesis, "The Bible presents us with a definitive, concrete, comprehensive worldview that is absolutely different from anything you can find anywhere else".

He goes on to say the Bible starts with God, it tells us He created everything, it tells us man is not merely an evolving animal but a special creation of God, it tells us how Satan and evil came in and how man fell, how man is utterly helpless and under judgement.

Then it gives the good news of  how God, in his infinite love and mercy and compassion has intervened and provided a great and grand way of salvation. Martin Lloyd Jones notes that all of that is in just one chapter - Genesis 3. What an amazing God we serve!

Romans 1 tells us that the evidence of God's existence is written on our hearts through the creation that surrounds us and clearly states the consequences of man moving away from God and eventually bearing within himself the due penalty of that sin.

We may despair about the world around us, of the inhumanity of man to man, the cruelty of power misused and of the corruption causing starvation and death in so many Third World countries. We could despair because the bad news seems endless. We read this month of the 345 late-term abortions in Victoria in 2007. That is the deliberate killing of babies, at the request of their mothers, who were more than 21 weeks from conception.

A government report stated that this is the highest number on record and that 164 were performed at a Melbourne clinic on women with healthy babies who said they were suffering psychological or social problems.

What of the physiological and social problems of a mother with a 4-year-old? Should a mother be given the same  'right' to terminate the life of her 4 -year-old child when the going gets tough? If not, why not? But of course most people would say 'No' because that seems illogical!

Logic seems to go out the window when a woman's 'right' is threatened.

What has that to do with Genesis? It is precisely because the church has devalued life by devaluing the Genesis record of God's creation and the redemption story that we in the Western world are in the state we are in.

Even countries where false religions reign  have more respect for life than 'western' so-called Christian nations do today.

The same could be said about them not allowing the legalised freedom to have sex-on-demand as entertainment in brothels and where promiscuity is frowned upon instead of promoted. The freedom of the west is one of our worst enemies because we, the church, have devalued the meaning of life itself.

If there is no need for judgement because we simply evolved at the hands of an experimenting God who had no plan and purpose and we are all 'saved in the end' no matter what, because that God would not be so unkind as to punish sin, then what is the point of values and guidelines for life? Why are we any different to the animals who live by the rules of the jungle?

Thankfully, we can know the truth and, while that truth cannot stop the bad things happening, it can indeed give us a reason to go on - the reason is a loving God who has a plan. Let us not forget that truth does indeed set us free.

Yours in the service of Jesus Christ

Peter and Jenny Stokes